Advertising apparatus.



No. 662,937.: Patented Dec. 4, I900.

D. G. HURD.

ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

(Application filed Mar. 6, 1900.) (Io Model.) 2 Sheets--Sheet *1 A E 00 UHDUDIIDIDHHDHB EDDIE! O O RD N) N w o o x 11 b U N N w v Q a; 1 1 O 0 ill I ll 'M 8 0 m @g e nnunnuuununnnunnn *3 INVENTOR Wis-4M1 BY %%Z W 0,6 ATTORNEY.

THE NORRIS PETERS co, vumuuyun. WASHINGTON, a. c.

o- 0 m 47 G e D d e t n e t a P "W R U H G l 7 3 an 2 6 6 0 N ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

(I0 Model.)

2 Sheets--Sheat 2 'NVENTOR M, Q. BY ATTORNEY.

W|TNEssEs.

TNE cams PETERS co, FHOTO-LITHQ, WASHINGTON, n. c.-

UNITED STATES FFICE.

ENT

DELMAR Gr. HURD, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO MICHAEL J. BURNS, OF SAME PLACE.

ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 662,937, dated December 4, 1900.

Application filed March 6, 1900. serial No. 7.460. (No model- To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DELMAR G. HURD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Advertising Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to advertising apparatus; and it consists in the devices and combinations hereinafter described and claimed.

In carrying out my invention I use a suitable case provided on opposite sides with windows or sight-openings through which the this case I arrange to turn upon a horizontal axis a skeleton cylinder or lantern-wheel, on the bars or spindles of which are hung signplates or sign-boards bearing the desired advertisements. I provide suitable means for giving the lantern-wheel an intermittent motion to bring all the signs successively to the sight-openings. The motion of the cylinder or lantern-wheel is represented in the drawings as due to the progressive movement of a wagon, the body of which constitutes the case of the device, the shaft of the lanternwheel being suitably connected by mechanism with the hub of one of the rear wheels; but any suitable motor having a wheel which revolves at a uniform speed might be used by connecting said last-named wheel to said cylinder or lantern-wheel just as the hub of said rear wagon-wheel is connected.

Some of the objects of this invention are to utilize both sides of the sign-plates or signboards, to guide them in such a manner that they shall be vertical at all times and shall not swing in order thereby to avoid noise and injury to said plates or boards and to display them properly at the windows or sightopenings of the case, to enable said plates or boards quickly and easily to be removed from the case and replaced therein, to allow other plates to be substituted for those previouslyin use, to move the signs to be exhibited quickly into place at the windows and to allow them to be displayed for a considerable period of time, and to provide automatic means for mov- 5o ing the signs.

In the accompanying drawings on two sheets, Figure 1 is a right-side elevation of advertising-signs may be seen, and within my invention set up in a closed wagon-body which serves as a case for the moving parts of the apparatus, saidcase or body and the rear axle being in section on the line 1 l in Fig. 2, the front of the case or wagon-body and the front axle being omitted; Fig. 2, a rear view of the apparatus, showing also the case in vertical section on the line 2 2 in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a vertical section of a part of the case through the sight-opening or window and of the bars or spindles of the lantern-wheel and the sign-plates or sign-boards; Fig. -l-, an end elevation of a part of the guiding means, the sign-boards being omitted; Fig. 5, a side elevation of one of said bars or spindles with its guiding-arms and adjacent parts of the lantern-wheel or cylinder, partly in central vertical section, at the left end; Figs. 6 and 7, respectively, a rear and a right side elevation of the wheels which cause the intermittent motion of the lantern-wheel or cylinder.

The cylinder A consists of two vertical heads a a, connected by horizontal bars or spindles 3, which are parallelwith the shaft a of said cylinder and pass through said heads near the peripheries of the same. The heads a a are fast on the shaft a so that the cylinder is in appearance like a lanternwheel; but the spindles, instead of being fast in said heads, as in ordinary lantern-wheels, turn freely therein, so that as the cylinder and its horizontal shaft (t (which is supported in suitable stands (0 Q5, secured on the floor (L3 of the case A) are revolved the bars B do not necessarily revolve about their own axles, but may have merely an orbital movement around said shaft.

Sign plates or boards C, adapted to bear suitable written, printed, or painted advertising words or devices, are provided on their upper edges with suitable means by which said boards or plates may be attached to the bars B.

I prefer to suspend the plates below the bars B by the means shown in Fig. 3-that is, by clips Deacl1 consisting of a pair of jaws d, and each jaw having on its upper end an incline d, which descends toward the incline of the other jaw of the same pair, and each jaw having below its incline d a horizontal part orbottom d adapted to rest upon the top of a bar 13. Each jaw d has a spring-shank d which is secured to the face of the plate or board by any usual means, as by screws, opposite another similar jaw, two or more clips being used on each plate or board. When the clip is pushed up against a bar B, the jaws open and reach up over said bar and close above the same, as shown.

If the bar .5 were round and fast in the heads a, a, the jaws would be worn rapidly and would need to be lubricated to prevent noise, and the lubricating material would be likely to drip on the signs. Therefore the bars B are preferably loose in the heads (t 0. and angular in cross-section or flattened on one or more faces, and the jaws d bear upon a flattened side of said bar, so that the weight of the hanging signs tends to keep said bars from turning on their own axes and would probably be sufficient for that purpose if the case A were stationary and the cylinder A were rotated by a stationary engine or similar motor. The bars B are represented as square in crosssection their journals of course being cylindrical. Only the journals of the bars B need to be lubricated in the construction shown, and these journals are not directly over the signs.

When the case A is a wagon-body, Figs. 1 and 2, and is intended to be drawn over the paving of streets and rough surfaces, it is necessary to use guides to keep the signs vertical, notwithstanding the jolting of the wagon. 1 therefore provide each bar B with two radial arms 1) b which extend in opposite directions from said bar, Fig. 5, outside of the heads a a of the cylinder A, one or both of said arms being detachable from said bar to allow the latter to be passed through said cylinder-heads and each detachable arm being retained on said bar by any usual means, as by a setscrew b which turns in the hub of said arm and thrusts against said bar. A stud Z) is secured in the outer end of each arm 1) N, as by a set-screw in an obvious manner, and preferably carries an antifriction-roll b, which stud or roll bears against the inner surface of a stationary guide-ring E E, there being such a guide-ring at each end of the cylinder A. (See Figs. 1,2, 3, and 4.) The centers of both guide-rings lie in the same vertical plane with the axis of the cylinder A, but the center of one ring E is above and the center of the other ring E below said axis an amount sufficient to keep each stud b (or the corresponding roll Z), if such be used) at all times against the inner surface of the corresponding guide-ring. The size of the guide-rings and the relative heights of their centers will depend, therefore, upon the length of the arms-b b and the size of the rolls b.

It is obvious that the guiding means will hold any bar B the same side up throughout a complete revolution of the cylinder A and that the clips D will prevent the sign from swinging on such bar and that therefore the sign will be vertical at all times. The intermittency of the movement of the cylinder A is due, Figs. 1, 2, 6, and 7, to a toothed wheel F, having as many teeth f as there are boards C, and to a cam-wheel G, which is almost a dislgexcept that its periphery is provided with a notch g and with a laterally-inclined cam portion g, which at one end is continuous with the periphery of said wheel Gr and at the other end is free or unattached at its outer curved surface and at its end is preferably flattened into parallelism with the lateral face of said wheel G to avoid scraping of said cam on the teethf'of the wheel F. next the opposite faces of the wheel F have each two working surfaces ff parallel to each other and in the plane of the axis of said wheel, the other two working surfaces f f of the same tooth adjacent to the opposite faces of said wheel being parallel to each other, but at the same angle with said axis as the cam portion g has to the plane of the cam-wheel G. The wheels i G are set at right angles to each other, with the periphery of the wheel G in one of the interdental spaces of the wheel F. The cam portion 9 is offset from the wheel G a distance equal to the pitch of the teeth on the wheel F. It is evident that a complete revolution of the wheel G will revolve the wheel F an angular distance measured by one teeth of said wheel F and that the movement of said last-named wheel will occupy but a small fraction of the time required fora complete revolution of the camwheel. Obviously the wheel F might be fast on the central shaft a of the cylinder A and the wheel G fast on the shaft of any suitable motor.

For convenience a separate shaft/ion which the wheel F is fast, is connected to rotate the shaft 66 0f the cylinder, as by sprocket-wheels f a, fast on said shafts, respectively,and connected by a sprocket-chainf in a well-known manner.

The wheel G is represented as fast on a shaft which is driven by a sprocket-chain giwhich connects sprocket-wheels, one, 9 of which is fast on said shaft g and the other, h, of which is fast on the hub h of a rear driving-wheel H of the wagon.

Motion of the cylinder is caused by the turning of the wheel H as the wagon is drawn forward; but obviously the wheel it might be rotated with the same effect by any motor.

If springs I are used, as represented in 1 and 2, between the rear axle and the case or wagon-body A, some means must be provided to keep the chain g taut when the case moves toward the rear axle. I use for this purpose two idle pulleysjj, arranged to press the members of said chain toward each other, said pulleys being carried by the lower ends of swinging arms J J, pivotedto the under side of the case and drawn toward each other by the contraction of a spiral springj, the ends of said spring being secured to said arms J J, respectively.

Access to the case for repairs or to change These tee thf IIO the signs is obtained through any suitable door (represented as a trap-door a hinged at a in the floor of the case and opening upward.

I claim as my invention 1. In an advertising apparatus, the combination with a suitable case,having sight-openings at opposite sides thereof, and a cylinder arranged between said sight-openings and consisting of a central horizontal shaft, and heads, fast on said shaft, of sign-plates, suspended between said heads, parallel With said shaft each sign-plate being free to swing between said heads and between the next adjacent sign-plates and adapted to maintain a vertical position at all times and to present its opposite faces at said opposite sight-openings in close proximity thereto as said cylinder is revolved.

2. In an advertising apparatus, the combination with a suitable case, having sightopenings at opposite sides thereof, and a cylinder arranged between said sight-openings and consisting of a central horizontal shaft, heads, fast on said shaft, and bars connecting said heads, parallel with said shaft, of sign-plates, suspended from said bars, each sign-plate being free to swing between said heads and between the bars of the next adjacent signplates and adapted to maintain a vertical position at all times and to present its opposite faces at said opposite sight-openings in close proximity thereto as said cylinder is revolved.

3. The combination with a cylinder consisting of heads, a central, horizontal shaft on which said heads are fast, and bars arranged parallel with said shaft and journaled in said heads and free to turn therein, of plates and clips rigidly secured to said plates and adapted to engage said bars, said bars having one or more flat faces and said clips having corresponding inner faces to prevent said plates from turning on said bars.

at. The combination, in an advertising'apparatus, of a case, having opposite sightopenings, a cylinder, consisting of heads, a shaft, on which said heads are fast, and bars, journaled in said heads, parallel with said shaft, and havingat opposite ends oppositelyprojecting radial arms, provided with studs, plates, rigidly secured to the said bars, and guiding means adapted to keep every position of each plate parallel with every other position of the same when said cylinder is rotated, said shaft being arranged horizontally between said sight-openings.

5. The combination in an advertising apparatus, of a case, having opposite sightopenings, a cylinder consisting of heads, a central horizontal shaft, on which said heads are fast, said shaft being arranged between said sight-openings, and bars, journaled in said heads parallel with said shaft and having at opposite ends oppositely-projecting radial arms, provided with studs, arranged parallel with said bars, plates, rigidly secured to said bars, and stationar guide-rings, arranged at oppositeends of said cylinder and having their corresponding curved surfaces in contact with said studs, said rings being eccentric to said cylinder but having their centers in the same plane with the center of said cylinder, to keep every position of each plate parallel with every other position of the same when said cylinder is rotated.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

DELMAR G. HURD.

Witnesses:

ALBERT M. Moonn, CHAS. W. EATON. 

